Towards a better BBCode

cairnarvon@feynman:~$ cat hello.txt
Hello {spoiler /prog/}.

What do you think of my {sup new} syntax for {i {sup B}{sub B}code} based on S-expressions? It supports {b.i.u function composition} and {sup*2 iteration {sub*3 (and nesting, obviously)}}. It uses curly braces {m \{\}} rather than the traditional {b (}parentheses{b )} because that will require less escaping.

{aa No more unmatched or misnested tags!}

I've written a {spoiler.i terrible} FIOC {i.m SexpCode-to-BBCode} translator, which you can find here: http://sprunge.us/KPWB?py
cairnarvon@feynman:~$ python sexpcode.py < hello.txt
Hello [spoiler]/prog/[/spoiler].

What do you think of my [sup]new[/sup] syntax for [i][sup]B[/sup][sub]B[/sub]code[/i] based on S-expressions? It supports [b][i][u]function composition[/u][/i][/b] and [sup][sup]iteration [sub][sub][sub](and nesting, obviously)[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sup][/sup]. It uses curly braces [m]{}[/m] rather than the traditional [b]([/b]parentheses[b])[/b] because that will require less escaping.

[aa]No more unmatched or misnested tags![/aa]

I've written a [spoiler][i]terrible[/i][/spoiler] FIOC [i][m]SexpCode-to-BBCode[/m][/i] translator, which you can find here: http://sprunge.us/KPWB?py

Hello /prog/.

What do you think of my ^new syntax for ^B_Bcode based on S-expressions? It supports function composition and ^{iteration _{(and nesting, obviously)}}. It uses curly braces {} rather than the traditional (parentheses) because that will require less escaping.

No more unmatched or misnested tags!

I've written a terrible FIOC SexpCode-to-BBCode translator, which you can find here: http://sprunge.us/KPWB?py

>>53

The argument that BBCode has equity with users is vague at best, and not very relevant regardless. If you want to talk about an audience that has something to lose from a system change, show me the audience, and tell me just what it is they have to lose.

Regardless, this is all tangential. The important argument here is not whether or not the semantics should be [tag] or <tag>, but something entirely greater: how one should design the means by which a user can bold, underline, and otherwise format his text posts within a given forum.

There may be ways to make a text-based formatting system (like BBCode) less painful, or easier on the parser, or more principally aligned with how browsers are told to render websites, and so on. But ultimately, they will never be intuitive in the same sense that handwriting is intuitive, because the user now has to juggle a confusing conceptual distinction between nested markup and written word within the same space, using the same medium. The user should not be responsible for writing both content and instructions on how to display that content. The user should only be responsible for writing content.

Forcing the user to write his formatting is a cheap fix. The browser sees markup; the user, meanwhile, sees images — letterforms included. Personally, I think BBCode is flawed, but good enough — because the only meaningful improvement to BBCode would be to not use BBCode at all.